The day after the Jets - 10 points to consider

Doc BearOct 18, 2010 4:00 PM

After reading TJ’s synopsis of the Broncos/Jets contest, there isn’t that much that I have to offer that he hasn’t already commented on. There is also little to argue, since I find that most all he has to say can be effectively backed up by the play-by-play and by watching the contest again. That said, I’d like to offer a few thoughts that either didn’t come out or deserve to be given even greater support. Here are ten thoughts that I found worth considering after re-watching the game.
By the way, how many of you recall saying that what you really wanted this year, especially with all the injuries, was a team that went out and was competitive each week? Well, this one was a great example of watching what you wish for, because competitive was the name of this game. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but Denver was in it to the end. I was and am proud of this team, and I have a lot of faith in them, especially considering where they are coming from.

1. Great effort
It’s hard to put into words how a team is striving. Seriously, there are times when the TV or computer seems to radiate various energies coming off your team in waves. Denver just didn’t come out ready to put their full strength of effort and talent into the game in the first quarter. The number of opportunities - and TJ lists them well - that they didn’t take advantage of probably cost them the game. One can never tell - changing one thing changes many, and not all would have been in Denver’s favor - but other than the early going, Denver’s level of effort was remarkable. Let’s keep this in mind - the Jets were in the playoffs long enough to remove the Cincinnati Bengals, the San Diego Chargers and gave the Colts a decent game, although last year, no one but the Saints were stopping the Colts. The Jets have only lost a single game, and they are experienced, stable, deep and talented. Denver fought them to the last two minutes, and they deserve a lot of praise for what they accomplished, win or lose. Yes, I’m familiar with Vince Lombardi’s comments on losing - his and many others. The fact is, if you inherit a team that is as bad as the 2008 Broncos were (more on that later this week), pressing a team like the Jets that well is a very good thing.

2. Too many chances early, no points.
TJ covered it well - That could have been the game. Nothing more to say about that, really. They didn’t have the focus that they quickly showed starting in the 2nd quarter - but too late to win the game, at least as it turned out.

3. Great schemes
IAOFM members and staff called for the 4-3 and the Broncos had the same idea. Points to www.IAOFM.com, and a great job by 1,295 pounds of linemen. By the time that Kevin Vickerson strained his groin, Denver’s 4-3 had done a remarkable job of slowing and even stopping both Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson. Champ Bailey made up for a less-than-optimal performance by Mario Haggan, who didn’t have his best game. Astute fans noted that it was only after Vickerson had to leave the game that the Jets’ offense managed to up their attack enough to score the final touchdown. Injuries are part of life, and every team has to overcome them, but I’m getting danged tired of writing that sentence. Sometimes, you feel like you’re getting hosed by the injury bug.

4. Sad to see Vickerson go out with a groin injury
And after he did, NY was able to do things that weren’t options when Vickerson was on the field. By the way, Jason Hunter also had a heck of a game. Those two made sure that the edges were set, handled backside pursuit witout being fooled on the bootlegs, and generally did things that I wouldn’t have expected. My biggest shock? Seeing Hunter handling coverage well - not on every play, but considering that he has always been a DE, and Green Bay dropped him after watching him briefly as they changed to a 3-4 defense. Perhaps OLB for a 4-3 is his optimal position - any way you slice it, these two players were money, all game long until Vickerson’s injury. Hunter continued to do all he could - congratulations to both of them.

5.Orton and Lloyd just weren’t on the same page - and Revis Antonio Cromartie does deserve much of the credit.
Orton was putting balls exactly where he should on many plays, and the coverage was perfect on the part of the Jets. Until the final drive, Denver did some incredible things on defense as well, and Perrish Cox and Syd’Quan ‘Squid’ Thompson’s INT was a classic case of the advantages of a shorter CB - they’re a lot harder to notice in coverage. Frankly, the whole CB corps deserved a game ball. You don’t want to ‘If only’, but Orton to Lloyd could have been the game. You could see that Orton was looking for his primary guy, and that’s the trouble with having one. The ball might have been spread around with more success.

6. Giving up that face mask on 4th and 6 reminded me of the D.J. Williams whiff against Donovan McNabb last year.
No points were scored on the drive where D.J. missed, but the momentum changed palpably. In this case, unlike the other, there was a penalty and the Jets got a legitimate call. The touchdown won the game, and the Jets, sadly, deserved it. Denver still made it a heck of a game.

7. Tough loss
I’m not into moral victories, but I do recognize when our team is very close to a SB contender. When a team fights against one of the two AFC Championship teams to a standstill, the idea that this is the same team as last year is absurd. Denver is getting bigger, stronger, faster, deeper, and has shown me that they are serious about winning this year. I’m buying into it. I find it interesting that Alphonso Smith has taken to Detroit so easily, but if you look at Perrish Cox and Syd’Quan Thompson’s absorbtion into the team, it wasn’t all the Broncos, guys. Expect another cornerback in free agency or the draft, but Denver’s corps is getting deep and solid. More power to them.

8. Life isn’t perfect, neither are the Broncos - yet.
What stands in their way? I’ll talk about that in a two-parter this week.

9. This may have been the best-coached game we’ve seen from Josh McDaniels.
The 4-3, the vast number of schemes, the blitzes, the ability to stop the run and the hard-fought approach to a game that very few thought that they had a chance in was top drawer. Was there a downside? Sure - the mistakes and penalties that are the sign of a young team came out at exactly the wrong times. That’s what happens at times, and it is a coaching problem. Every time the team isn’t on the same page, someone hasn’t been coached well enough or learned what was coached well enough. You can’t deny the responsibillity of either the player or the coachesg. But when Rex Ryan spoke after the game, he was effusive about the Broncos’ scheme and its implementation. McDaniels and Complany deserve a big hand for this one.

10. Every home game should be Orange Sunday. No exceptions - except for breast cancer.
There’s always room for compassion. Other than that, Denver is the Orange City, and they should be out there showing it every single home game. By the way - Pittsburgh does the towels. Let’s leave that to them - there’s only one stadium with Terrible Towels. Why play copycat.? But wear an oversized T-shirt over your parka - I’ve done it, and the extra layer helped when the solar winds started to blast across the South Stands at Old Mile High. Just show your orange and support your team!

Learn to laugh at yourself. You will be ceaselessly amused. - Sri Gary Olsen

You can reach Doc at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow him on Twitter @alloverfatman

Related

Well Doc, I was pretty close on the score I just got confused on the teams with those scores. ahhhh that was an embarrasing loss.

Posted by Idaho Nate on 2010-10-25 03:48:37

Idaho - Great to see your comment.

You know, one reason the raiders are struggling is that they haven&#8217t had a quarterback since Terry Bradshaw had hair. They have a few other folks who can play though. I&#8217m far from a supporter of theirs - but you know me. I tend to try to see both sides. When it&#8217s OAK the view doesn&#8217t get better, but many of the players do.

QB - none, they just have the advantage of someone who will be sans film, as in Kyle Boller. His own downside is that he&#8217s not familiar with his people.

RB - Mike Bennett and Mike Bush are good players.

WR - Chad Schiliens and Louis Murphy. Their 2009 question mark is showing some - if only some - signs of life.

There are other good players in other areas - Mike Mitchell has surprised everyone but OAK, O&#8217Shaunessy has played well, Zach Miler is top drawer, Richard Seymour is a dirty, but very talented player, etc, etc.

Since Cable started turning spa members into football players, that team has been turning around. It&#8217s just one opinion, but I think that taking them lightly would be a serious mistake.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-10-19 19:48:14

Great write up and fantastic comments.

I agree with the positive direction the Broncs are headed. I really feel better about this 2-4 team than last year&#8217s 6-0 team. If the Broncs got a run game, I&#8217d be sold!

Do you guys think the injuries will prevent using the 4-3 against the Faiders?

Oh, note that there&#8217s a guy selling &#8220F*** the Raiders&#8221 t-shirts under the I-70 bridge on the walk from the light rail. Just sayin&#8217... <img alt="grin" height="19" src="http://www.singernet.com/images/smileys/grin.gif" style="border:0;" width="19">

Posted by jtomasik on 2010-10-19 17:59:05

Great write up Doc Bear! That Jets game was one of the better played Bronco games I&#8217ve seen in quite sometime.

I do have to disagree with you though on your analysis of the Raiders. The Raiders have no talent except for that asamooa dude, and we are going to kick the ever living crap out of them come sunday.

This is not the same Bronco team that has been losing to the raider&#8217s at home. I&#8217m predicting a 35-10 game with the lone Raider&#8217s touchdown coming in garbage time. Lock it!

Posted by Idaho Nate on 2010-10-19 17:01:50

c_style, if you&#8217re crazy then you aren&#8217t alone because I completely agree. As much as I wanted to believe I just never had confidence in the 2009 team, except for the Patriots game every win felt felt more like luck than skill. I was one of the people who wanted a team that was competitive in 2010 so, for a change, I wasn&#8217t heartbroken yesterday because they actually did much better than I expected.

Posted by BroncosLady on 2010-10-19 02:38:22

underdog, you&#8217re right - the Raiders tend to win when they come here, and they have that other advantage - 1st game QBs. It&#8217s playground football - neither knows the other&#8217s terminology, so things can get utterly unpredictable.

The other side of the coin is that both Denver and Oak have some serious talent, and some holes being filled by youngsters. I&#8217m looking for a great game, a close game, and the last team with a drive to win. It&#8217s one of the best games of the year.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-10-19 01:34:24

Bless you rational folks. I like to think I&#8217m one too, even as frustrated as I got that they had one slip away yesterday.

For the next game, this note from Adam Schefter makes me wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing&#8212RT @espnnfl Oakland Raiders may have to start Kyle Boller at QB vs. Denver Broncos: http://es.pn/aoaB2R

Boller&#8217s been a bust but he&#8217s got more talent than the two guys he&#8217d be filling in for, no? This would be just our luck, a crummy team comes in and gets a fresh start. That said, IF the Broncos don&#8217t have a letdown, which I assume they won&#8217t, it&#8217s a game they better win.

Posted by underdog on 2010-10-19 00:33:02

Guys, you&#8217re in very good - and pretty extensive - company. This is a very good team that&#8217s fighting to become elite. They&#8217re not there yet - but they are going that way, record be damned.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-10-18 23:03:02

c_style, if you&#8217re crazy then you aren&#8217t alone because I completely agree. As much as I wanted to believe I just never had confidence in the 2009 team, except for the Patriots game every win felt felt more like luck than skill. I was one of the people who wanted a team that was competitive in 2010 so, for a change, I&#8217wasn&#8217t heartbroken yesterday because they actually did much better than I expected.

Posted by BroncosLady on 2010-10-18 22:59:17

Nice write up Doc. Looks like we finally do have a LB who can cover!

It&#8217s crazy that at 2-4 this season I truly believe we have a better squad than the 6-0 version we were sporting 1 year ago. I think we are about to start tearing through teams starting with a shredding of the raiders on Sunday.

It feels really good to be done with that stretch of our schedule. Bring on them faiders!

GO BRONCOS!

Posted by c_style on 2010-10-18 21:07:57

And for Dennis - This much:

Words Fail!

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-10-18 21:02:19

Drew, thanks. You cracked me up. your insights, however, are always both welcome and accurate.

spock - Hunter may be the best named NFL player since Richard Dent. My chicgao friends would pile in a room for the game and when he hammered someone the room exploded with the sound of &#8220DENT&#8221. I&#8217m getting that way on Hunter - he may have only had 2 tackles and an INT, but he was in the right place to change a dozen plays. I&#8217ve noted that the &#8216official&#8217 stats can only handle so many tacklers, and he&#8217s usually in the pile somewhere.

Vickerson&#8217s groin pull concerns me - those can really linger, and he&#8217s been a big difference-maker for Denver. Frankly, watching McBean after Vickerson has pulled his shift is a disappointment - I think that the reality is that the 2008 team was so bad that McBean was a big upgrade. In the Real World, he&#8217s a middle of the road RDE, and Vickerson is a big, hostile, effective player who can take any slot on the line, 4-3 or 3-4 (or 5-2).

I didn&#8217t look at the Redskins&#8217 defense, but last I heard, Shannie was going to let Slowik run it again, so I&#8217m far from shocked. If Shanahan gets over his engram with the defenses, he could really do good things in the league. Until then&#8230.McD looks really good to me.

I&#8217m still waiting to see on the running game. The OL is still hit and miss - Walton is learning fast, but he&#8217s a rookie. Hochstein plays like a rookie, and Beadles had to cover for Harris, so that&#8217s three rookie quality players on the OL. Not a good thing for a running game. Too many RBs were pulled down 3 yards behind the LOS - that&#8217s not on the RBs. Orton missed on call badly - the Jets overloaded the weakside very obviously, and Orton tried to run it anyway. Crunch. Ah well - generally, Orton is win on that kind of call.

Well, it&#8217s Raiders and then London - I think that Denver can win both, if they can field nearly a whole team.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2010-10-18 21:00:54

How bad do we want to beat Jokeland!

Posted by Dennis Mitchell on 2010-10-18 20:09:28

Hi, Doc. One of the lessons I took away from the game is that this year&#8217s team has a pretty good run defense, and I&#8217m not basing it on just this game. It was the Ravens game that was the aberration. Before that Denver had been defending the run pretty well, and they returned to form against the Jets. Conversely the running game is not as good as it showed against the Jets, although I think it&#8217s improving steadily. It&#8217s just that going up against two good defenses on the road masked the improvement, while being fired up against the Jets at home highlighted it.

It&#8217s been a pleasure seeing Vickerson and Hunter picking up the defense so rapidly and playing so well. One play in particular brought a smile to my face. Sanchez faked one way and then started to roll out the other way . . . and there was Hunter waiting for him. It was nice hearing the announcers point out with approval that he had stayed at home and guarded the backside rather than chasing the play. I love seeing that kind of discipline. It helps lay to rest the memory of helmetless Webster tearing around out of control (and of course impressing Shanahan because he&#8217s &#8220trying to make a play&#8221). I think they might even have used the phrase &#8220doing his job&#8221 or close to it. Which is of course what McDaniels&#8217 philosophy is all about: just do your job.

Speaking of doing your job, did you notice that the Redskins apparently are last in defense? I love Shanny but he must carry bad defense with him in a bag.

Posted by spock on 2010-10-18 19:55:33

Thanks Doc. I am glad they used the 4-3. Widened our front and allowed our LB&#8217s to make plays. I think the same thing will happen next week.

Posted by Boydy2669 on 2010-10-18 19:54:25

Good stuff, Doc. The problem with you IAOFM guys is that you rarely leave a stone unturned, which makes it hard for the rest of us to prove how insightful we might or might not be <img alt="wink" height="19" src="http://www.singernet.com/images/smileys/wink.gif" style="border:0;" width="19">. Couldn&#8217t you guys leave an acorn or two for the minions every once in a while?

Posted by Drewthorn on 2010-10-18 19:47:28

Well said, Doc.

I agree the game plan was flawless and the execution excellent. I assume (maybe wrongly) we may look to use the 4-3 much more against the likes of Oak and KC (running teams).

Syd and Perry are proving why a former CB was traded for chump change (sorry Gronk).

Is it me or is the injury to Big Vick more significant than Eddie (if it is not a quick recovery)?

Also I agree about Orange every home game. I loved seeing the cameras shaking. Cant wait for Oakland.